[scorpion]

(01-30-2014 03:22 PM)Wutang Wrote:  

"But I got quite a bit of didactic hate toward other religions when I was immersed in Jewish culture. For whatever reason, some very vocal Jews (not even the majority) just can't tend to their own -- they feel the need to monitor and control other religions and cultures. Hence, the vocal feminists who are absolutely indignant a woman would put her family first. "

Yeah pretty much.

I noticed that Jews very rarely are critical of their own religion/culture. Even if they do have such thoughts they will almost never express them in public, it's like they have an acute sense about how all Jews should play nice with each other and never try to undermine each other in public. If you look at Christianity it's the complete opposite. Some of the most anti-Christian people are people who are former Christians - particular Catholics. For some reason Catholicism seems to create a high number of bitter apostates - especially with people who went through Catholic school.

For an example of this look at the 'Four Horsemen' from the New Atheism movement. Dawkins and Dennett are pure WASPs: Dawkins received a Anglican education which entailed going to chapel and studying religious works while Dennett was raised with a New England Protestant background which is pretty much as WASP as you can get in the US. The vast majority of their criticism on religion is aimed towards Christianity. Harris has a Jewish background of some sort but he almost never criticizes Judaism, instead focusing on Islam and Christianity.

In my own personal life some of the most anti-religion people I've met have been Jews - I knew two of them back in college. These Jews would heap scorn and burning coals on other religions but Judaism would always be spared. Hell one of these guys even used to go Hillel on our campus often, would keep kosher for passover, and even had a Jew wedding while wearing the little hat on the top of his head and everything. The other guy, who was my roommate I would ask why he would never attack Judaism with the same ferocity he did with Christianity and he would simply reply with "Oh cause my friends and family are Jews". Too bad his Muslim and Christian friends and family apparently aren't deserving of the same reprieve apparently.

A lot of criticism of Christianity comes from certain practices that are described in the Old Testament. I noticed that people who used these practices to attack Christianity would never use it as attacks on Judaism which is bizarre because Jews are supposed to be bound to the law while with Christians, they are exempt from a lot of the laws such as the dietary ones. If you wanted to attack the Abrahamic religions in general it would seem to make more sense to attack it at the root with is Judaism but instead it's Islam and Christianity that recieves the majority of the blows.

Jews are a distinct racial and ethnic group, which is why you see this phenomenon. A Jew renouncing anything Jewish would be like a black guy renouncing his own blackness, or an Irishman renouncing his Irishness. It doesn't happen. Judaism itself is not so much a religion as an evolved ethnic supremacist ideology that supports the Jewish people and helps them thrive as a group. This is the reason that Jews have never been serious about proselytizing or seeking converts, while every other major religion does. Being a Catholic, a Muslim, a Mormon or a Buddhist is a matter of faith, while being a Jew is a matter of birth. This is also the reason that Jews trace their lineage through the mother rather than the father - anyone born to a Jewish woman is considered a Jew - since paternity could always be questioned, while maternity cannot.